SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Monday demanded the immediate pullout of North Korean troops allegedly deployed in Russia as it summoned the Russian ambassador to protest deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
South Korea's spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special operation forces to Russia this month to support Moscow's war against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces.
During a meeting with Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev, Vice South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun “condemned in the strongest terms” North Korea's troop dispatch that he said poses “a grave security threat" to South Korea and the international community, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Kim said that South Korea in collaboration with the international community will mobilize all available means to deal with an act that threatens its vital national security interests, according to the statement. The Russian Embassy quoted Zinoviev as saying that the Russian-North Korean cooperation is not aimed against the security interests of South Korea.
In a telephone call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said that Seoul won’t sit idly by “reckless” military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow. Yoon said South Korea will soon send a delegation to NATO to exchange information about Russian-North Korean cooperation, according to Yoon’s office. Rutte wrote on X that North Korea possibly fighting alongside Russia would “mark a significant escalation.”
The U.S. and NATO haven't confirmed that North Korean troops were sent to Russia. But the reports of their presence have already stoked concerns in South Korea that Russia might provide North Korea with sophisticated technologies that can sharply enhance the North's nuclear and missile programs in return for its troop dispatch.
North Korea's advancing nuclear arsenal is a major security threat to South Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently took steps to permanently terminate all relations with South Korea and threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. Some observers say South Korea will likely consider supplying weapons to Ukraine if Russian transfers of high-tech nuclear and missile technologies to North Korea are verified.
South Korea has joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But South Korea hasn’t directly provided arms to Kyiv, citing its longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.
Russia has earlier denied using North Korean troops in its war with Ukraine. North Korea's state media hasn't commented on the matter. Ukrainian officials released a video allegedly showing North Korean soldiers lining up to collect Russian military clothes and bags at an unknown location. The Associated Press couldn’t verify the footage independently.
Asked about the North Korean troops during a conference call with reporters Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “we are seeing a lot of contradictory information.”
“South Koreans say one thing, then the Pentagon says it has no confirmation of such statements. There is a lot of contradictory information,” Peskov said. ”It must be treated as such.”
North Korea's troop deployment to Russia would be its first participation in a major war since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Many experts question how much North Korean troops would help Russia on the battlefield, citing their lack of combat experience.
Cooperation between North Korea and Russia has flourished over the past two years. The U.S., South Korea and their partners have accused North Korea of supplying conventional arms to Russia in return for economic and military assistance. In June, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact stipulating mutual military assistance if either country is attacked.
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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
A TV screen shows an image of soldiers believed to be from North Korea stand in line to receive supplies from Russia during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
In this photo provided by South Korea Foreign Ministry, South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun, right, meets with Russian Ambassador to South Korea Georgy Zinoviev at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (South Korea Foreign Ministry via AP)
Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she's going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress.
“For every good day, there's three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the service industry since she was a teenager. “You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you're going to make.”
That uncertainty exists largely because federal labor law allows businesses to pay tipped workers, like food servers, bartenders and bellhops, less than the minimum wage as long as customer tips make up the difference. Voters in Arizona and Massachusetts will decide in November whether it's good policy to continue to let employers pass some of their labor costs to consumers.
The ballot measures reflect an accelerating debate over the so-called subminimum wage, which advocates say is essential to the sustainability of the service industry and detractors say pushes the cost of labor off employers' shoulders and leads to the exploitation of workers.
The amount tipped workers make varies by state. Fourteen states pay the federal minimum, or just above $2 an hour for tipped workers and $7 an hour for non-tipped workers.
Arizona employers can pay their tipped workers $3 less hourly than other workers. Under current rates, that means tipped workers' base pay is $11.35 an hour.
Voters will decide whether to approve a measure backed by state Republicans and the Arizona Restaurant Association to change the minimum for tipped workers to 25% less than the regular minimum wage as long as their pay with tips is $2 above that minimum.
The hourly minimum wage in Arizona is currently $14.35 and increases yearly according to inflation.
Voters in Massachusetts are being asked to eliminate the tiered minimum-wage system.
There, voters will decide on a measure to incrementally increase the state’s tipped worker wage — currently $6.75 per hour — until it meets the regular minimum wage by January 2029. The measure was put forward by One Fair Wage, a not-for-profit that works to end the subminimum wage.
If voters approve the measure, the Bay State would join seven states that currently have a single minimum wage. Michigan will soon join that group after an August state Supreme Court ruling initiated a phase-out of the subminimum wage.
“When you’re not making the money that you should be making to pay your bills, it becomes hard on you,” said James Ford, a longtime Detroit-based hospitality worker. ”(The ruling) makes me think we’re moving forward.”
Other states have wage measures on the ballot. In California, voters will choose whether to raise the hourly minimum wage from $16 to $18 by 2026 in what would be the highest statewide minimum wage in the country. Measures in Alaska and Missouri would gradually raise minimum wages to $15 an hour while also requiring paid sick leave.
In the last two years, Washington, D.C., and Chicago also have started to eliminate the subminimum wage.
Employers must ensure that workers get the full minimum if they don't make that much with tips. But they don't always comply with federal labor law. One in 10 restaurants and bars investigated nationally by the U.S. Labor Department between 2010 and 2019 violated a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, resulting in the establishments paying $113.9 million in back wages.
The issue disproportionately affects women, who make up about 47% of the U.S. workforce but nearly 70% of those who work in tipped professions, according to an AP analysis of U.S. Census data.
In Arizona, Republican state Sen. J.D. Mesnard, the sponsor of Proposition 138, said the measure is a win for both businesses and lower-wage workers.
“The employer is protected in the sense that they can preserve this lower base, knowing that there are going to be tips on top of it,” Mesnard said. “The tipped worker is guaranteed to make more than minimum wage, which is more than they’re guaranteed today.”
Nichols doesn't support it.
“It would reduce my hourly, and anything that reduces my hourly is not something that I want to lean into,” she said. “I don’t believe that business owners need any more cuts in labor costs.”
Proposition 138 was initially put forward as a response to a ballot measure pushed by One Fair Wage that would create a single minimum wage of $18, but the group abandoned the effort after threats of litigation from the restaurant association over how it collected signatures.
Instead, One Fair Wage will focus on trying to pass a wage hike in the Legislature. Democratic State Rep. Mariana Sandoval said she hopes her party in November can flip the Legislature, where Republicans hold a one-seat majority in both chambers.
After working for tips for more than 20 years, server Lindsay Ruck, who works at a restaurant at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, said she’s faced her fair share of belligerent customers. But because their tips make up such a significant part of her pay — approximately $60 an hour — she’s hesitant to stand up to them.
To Ruck, higher base pay — not less — is called for.
“I think that there should be just a single minimum wage and then people should get tipped on top of that,” Ruck said.
The National Restaurant Association and its state affiliates warn of reduced hours, lower employment and menu price hikes if employers can’t rely on tips to pay their workers. That’s why Dan Piacquadio, a co-owner of Harold’s Cave Creek Corral restaurant outside Phoenix, is hoping voters pass Proposition 138.
“This is just a way to protect our current system that’s been there for 20 years and protect restaurant owners, keep restaurants affordable, and most importantly, keep very good pay for all tipped workers,” Piacquadio said.
Between 2012 and 2019, the number of restaurants and people employed at those restaurants grew at a faster clip in the seven states that have a single minimum wage compared to states that pay the federal minimum tipped wage, according to labor economist Sylvia Allegretto.
“We are sitting here in a state that has a $16 minimum wage,” Allegretto said from Oakland, California, where she works at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research. “No subminimum wage, and we’ve got a thriving restaurant industry.”
The front entrance of Harold's Cave Creek Corral, regarding Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Cave Creek, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Patrons sit at the bar for lunch at Harold's Cave Creek Corral, regarding Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Cave Creek, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Dan Piacquadio, owner of Harold's Cave Creek Corral, pauses at the restaurant's concert stage as he awaits the results of the upcoming election results regarding Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Cave Creek, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Dan Piacquadio, owner of Harold's Cave Creek Corral, poses for a photograph in his restaurant as he is very interested in the upcoming election and the results of Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Cave Creek, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Dan Piacquadio, left, owner of Harold's Cave Creek Corral, waits to talk with chef and kitchen manager Lucio Osorno as he works in the kitchen as Piacquadio waits for the upcoming election and the results of Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Cave Creek, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Dan Piacquadio, owner of Harold's Cave Creek Corral, checks for reservations at the entrance of the restaurant as he waits for the upcoming election regarding Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Cave Creek, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Dan Piacquadio, owner of Harold's Cave Creek Corral, stands at the front register as he is awaiting the results regarding Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Cave Creek, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Dan Piacquadio, owner of Harold's Cave Creek Corral, poses for a photograph in his restaurant as he speaks about Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Cave Creek, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Lindsay Ruck, a server at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport restaurants, pauses in Terminal 3 as she works for minimum wage plus tips and is interested in the upcoming election and the Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage vote Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Lindsay Ruck, a server at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport restaurants, pauses in Terminal 3 as she works for minimum wage plus tips and is interested in the upcoming election and the Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage vote Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Lindsay Ruck, a server at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport restaurants, pauses in Terminal 3 as she is anticipates the vote on Arizona Prop 138 on minimum wage Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
